MONTREAL – Rarely is Thiago Alves booked for an event without facing two fights.

One is against his opponent, and the other traditionally had been against the scale.

But the once-plus-sized welterweight had little trouble making weight for this weekend’s UFC 124 event, and according to Alves (18-7 MMA, 10-4 UFC), the victory over fast-rising John Howard (14-6 MMA, 4-2 UFC) should be a sign of things to come.

“I felt really, really good,” Alves told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) after a shutout unanimous-decision victory in Saturday’s first pay-per-view bout at Montreal’s Bell Centre. “I trained really hard for this. I’ve been through a lot. I regrouped and teamed up with the right people, teamed up with the right camp.”

No one ever doubted Alves’ talent. After debuting with the UFC in 2005 and suffering a submission loss to veteran Spencer Fisher, the American Top Team fighter posted nine wins in his next 10 fights, all in the UFC. Seven of the wins came via knockout, and the native Brazilian emerged as the UFC’s No. 1 contender.

But Alves, who pushes the limits of the welterweight division’s 171-pound upper threshold, twice has missed weight for UFC fights. And in 2006, he became the first fighter in Nevada history to test positive for a banned diuretic, which some athletes have used to aid weight-cutting.

Even when he did make weight, Alves often looked drained and gaunt, and UFC president Dana White himself was one of the fighter’s many critics who wondered if the slugger would be better off at middleweight.

But prior to UFC 124, Alves acquired the services of “The Ultimate Fighter 7″ cast member Mike Dolce. In recent years, the IFL veteran has launched the “Dolce Diet,” which MMA fighters, industry insiders and regular fans have tried. While Dolce has pushed the program in interviews and a dedicated website, the real praise has come from those individuals following the life plan.

For Alves, who’s known for notoriously intense training camps, it was the final piece of the puzzle.

“The Dolce Diet helped me out a lot,” Alves said. “It’s not just a diet. It’s a life choice. Everything that he tells you, you’ve got to surround yourself with healthy people that are going to help take you to where you want to get. I always train hard. I’ve got a great camp with me, but it’s pretty much the diet and the life choice that made a huge difference in this fight.

Prior to the Howard win, Alves suffered a title loss to champ Georges St-Pierre in July 2009. Then, after a knee injury and once-career-threatening brain surgery left him on the sidelines, he returned from a 13-month layoff, missed weight for the fight, and dropped an uninspired decision to Fitch back in August.

The cries for a move to middleweight intensified, and White hinted that another loss could end Alves’ 13-fight run in the UFC. But then came the Howard booking, and Alves returned to his usually dominant form with a mixed attack of crisp striking, solid clinch work and the occasional takedown.

After all, Alves said he’s no longer a one-dimension striker, and he wanted to put the rest of the division on notice.

“I put behind the losses and everything, and I’m moving forward – both for the present and even more for the future,” Alves said. “It was tough. It was not easy, but when you know what you want, and you work so hard for it, it makes it a little bit easier. I just went and did what I was supposed to do.

“I’m always working on all aspects of my game. We train wrestling and jiu jitsu weekly. I just prefer to fight standing up. In this fight, I made sure to throw in a couple of takedowns there to show that I’m not just one-dimensional.”

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